cblackburn219
06-19-2009, 05:00 PM
Hello everyone I read a book a few years ago and I can't remember the title or author. I also don't remember character names but I remember the plot pretty well. I will try to describe it as best as I can if anyone knows it please help.
I originally thought the book was titled Grey Gallows but when I went to look up the author I was unable to even find the book.
I guess I would classify it as a romance.
Main Character: Marriage age Female
Setting: England I think Victorian. Starts in a boarding school, then goes to a major city (London I believe), and finally goes to the country.
Plot: (This might be long and somewhat jumbled I am sorry it was a few years ago.)
The book starts out a girls boarding school. The main character is older than most of the girls there. Her parents are dead. One day her aunt comes and take her with her to a major city (London?). Her aunt is very cruel and they argue a lot. They are upper class and attend balls and such. Her Aunt is worried about the start of ball season. About this time the main character is getting sick. She still attends the ball. There she meets this handsome and mysterious man.
During her stay in this city she meet some accountant's assistant or lawyers assistant ( a middle class person) and becomes friends with him.
She finds out that her aunt has sold her to be married to the mysterious man she met at the ball. When she complains her aunt said to consider it a blessing since a much older and less attractive man(I think the name is Sir John but I am not sure and that is the only name that sounds familiar) offered her more.
She does not know what sex is and her aunt told her that her innocence was cute. She realizes something big is supposed to happen on the wedding night and this makes her nervous.
When they get married he takes her to his manor in the country. That night he shows her her room and he said says get well soon ( she still isn't well) and leaves to go to his room. She is completely shocked by this as she thought that something was supposed to happen.
She starts to read books in the library while she is still sick. She reads stuff that surprises her husband as being some what more intellectual or advanced for her.
He is very bipolar towards her and gets angry often. He doesn't strike her but she is quite scared of him during these times.
One night he brings her Laudanum to help her sleep and feel better and leaves the bottle on the dresser for to use at her leisure.
She doesn't use the Laudanum but begins to get better. She then spends some time in the local village. She is horrified by the child labor and the low wages. She starts to make some humanitarian efforts.
Her husband brings a man over and tells her to sign something. He refuses to tell her what it is for and when she asks he get very angry with her.
They attend a local church. The preacher is very young looking and has the voice of an angel. They meet the pastor and his sister after church. I can't remember who's house it was. She learns that the pastor and his sister are old friends of her husband and that he probably would have married her if their father had not gone bankrupt or something to that effect.
One morning when she is feeling better her husband invites her to go horse back riding with him. A fog ends up rolling in and she gets lost for a long time and somehow manages to get back to the manor.
She begins to explore around the house she sees several portraits of previous family members. One of them supposedly haunts the manor. She starts to see the ghost in various parts of the lawn around the mansion.
The whole time during the her stay one wing of the house is under construction.
Also during her stay she for some reason is still in contact with the middle class guy she made friends with in London.
He is also worried about her as she confides in him about her fear of her husband. They begin to discuss sensitive matters and he is shocked when he finds out that they have not had sex and he hasn't even shown any affections toward her. This alerts him and he promises to investigate why her husband is so strange and mysterious.
Some events I don't recall and stuff I previously mentioned (Some of this hasn't exactly been linearly ) happens and the guy comes back to her and tells her that her husband was/is married to the preacher's sister under another name.
Throughout the novel she also gets some consolation from the Preacher who is a good friend and helps calm down her anger.
The Ending details are a bit hazy for me but I think the preacher's sister dies and her husband is so upset he sets his house on fire with him in it and he dies and the house is destroyed.
She doesn't have any money now because the paper/s she signed gave off her inheritance to fix the wing of the house that was under repair. Her husband was out of money and married her when she was sickly because he thought she was going to die. When she began to get better he left the laudanum out in hopes that she would get addicted to the highly addictive stuff and overdoes and die. When she didn't do that he lost her in the fog because it is a very dangerous area and the horse would either stumble or animals would get her but she made it back. He set up the ghost thing in hopes that she would eventually run away, go insane, or somehow die. The preacher was the ghost. His pale skin made him good at it since he was only seen from a great distance for a short time he made a convincing ghost.
She marries the middle class friend. Even though she doesn't have anymore money she uses the land she has from her husband's death to start a mill that will only hire men from the village, pays higher, and will be more humanitarian.
The preacher is the only one who escapes and someone who knew him (I don't remember) said it is a shame because he was the most vile of the group. He used his beautiful face and his angel's voice to comfort people.
If anyone could help me with this I really appreciate it. I tried to be as descriptive about the plot as I could. Thanks.
I originally thought the book was titled Grey Gallows but when I went to look up the author I was unable to even find the book.
I guess I would classify it as a romance.
Main Character: Marriage age Female
Setting: England I think Victorian. Starts in a boarding school, then goes to a major city (London I believe), and finally goes to the country.
Plot: (This might be long and somewhat jumbled I am sorry it was a few years ago.)
The book starts out a girls boarding school. The main character is older than most of the girls there. Her parents are dead. One day her aunt comes and take her with her to a major city (London?). Her aunt is very cruel and they argue a lot. They are upper class and attend balls and such. Her Aunt is worried about the start of ball season. About this time the main character is getting sick. She still attends the ball. There she meets this handsome and mysterious man.
During her stay in this city she meet some accountant's assistant or lawyers assistant ( a middle class person) and becomes friends with him.
She finds out that her aunt has sold her to be married to the mysterious man she met at the ball. When she complains her aunt said to consider it a blessing since a much older and less attractive man(I think the name is Sir John but I am not sure and that is the only name that sounds familiar) offered her more.
She does not know what sex is and her aunt told her that her innocence was cute. She realizes something big is supposed to happen on the wedding night and this makes her nervous.
When they get married he takes her to his manor in the country. That night he shows her her room and he said says get well soon ( she still isn't well) and leaves to go to his room. She is completely shocked by this as she thought that something was supposed to happen.
She starts to read books in the library while she is still sick. She reads stuff that surprises her husband as being some what more intellectual or advanced for her.
He is very bipolar towards her and gets angry often. He doesn't strike her but she is quite scared of him during these times.
One night he brings her Laudanum to help her sleep and feel better and leaves the bottle on the dresser for to use at her leisure.
She doesn't use the Laudanum but begins to get better. She then spends some time in the local village. She is horrified by the child labor and the low wages. She starts to make some humanitarian efforts.
Her husband brings a man over and tells her to sign something. He refuses to tell her what it is for and when she asks he get very angry with her.
They attend a local church. The preacher is very young looking and has the voice of an angel. They meet the pastor and his sister after church. I can't remember who's house it was. She learns that the pastor and his sister are old friends of her husband and that he probably would have married her if their father had not gone bankrupt or something to that effect.
One morning when she is feeling better her husband invites her to go horse back riding with him. A fog ends up rolling in and she gets lost for a long time and somehow manages to get back to the manor.
She begins to explore around the house she sees several portraits of previous family members. One of them supposedly haunts the manor. She starts to see the ghost in various parts of the lawn around the mansion.
The whole time during the her stay one wing of the house is under construction.
Also during her stay she for some reason is still in contact with the middle class guy she made friends with in London.
He is also worried about her as she confides in him about her fear of her husband. They begin to discuss sensitive matters and he is shocked when he finds out that they have not had sex and he hasn't even shown any affections toward her. This alerts him and he promises to investigate why her husband is so strange and mysterious.
Some events I don't recall and stuff I previously mentioned (Some of this hasn't exactly been linearly ) happens and the guy comes back to her and tells her that her husband was/is married to the preacher's sister under another name.
Throughout the novel she also gets some consolation from the Preacher who is a good friend and helps calm down her anger.
The Ending details are a bit hazy for me but I think the preacher's sister dies and her husband is so upset he sets his house on fire with him in it and he dies and the house is destroyed.
She doesn't have any money now because the paper/s she signed gave off her inheritance to fix the wing of the house that was under repair. Her husband was out of money and married her when she was sickly because he thought she was going to die. When she began to get better he left the laudanum out in hopes that she would get addicted to the highly addictive stuff and overdoes and die. When she didn't do that he lost her in the fog because it is a very dangerous area and the horse would either stumble or animals would get her but she made it back. He set up the ghost thing in hopes that she would eventually run away, go insane, or somehow die. The preacher was the ghost. His pale skin made him good at it since he was only seen from a great distance for a short time he made a convincing ghost.
She marries the middle class friend. Even though she doesn't have anymore money she uses the land she has from her husband's death to start a mill that will only hire men from the village, pays higher, and will be more humanitarian.
The preacher is the only one who escapes and someone who knew him (I don't remember) said it is a shame because he was the most vile of the group. He used his beautiful face and his angel's voice to comfort people.
If anyone could help me with this I really appreciate it. I tried to be as descriptive about the plot as I could. Thanks.